• Lebanon’s newly designated prime minister said he plans to form a government of experts and independents
• He won a majority of lawmakers’ votes after receiving backing from Hezbollah

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s newly designated prime minister said on Friday he plans to form a government of experts and independents to deal with the country’s crippling economic crisis.

Hassan Diab spoke to reporters following a meeting with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a day after he was asked by the president to form the country’s next government.

Diab, a university professor and former education minister, won a majority of lawmakers’ votes after receiving backing from the powerful Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah and its allies. However, he lacks the support of major Sunni figures, including the largest Sunni party headed by Hariri.

That is particularly problematic for Diab, who as a Sunni, lacks support from his own community. And under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing agreement, the prime minister must be Sunni.

Diab, however, emerged from Friday’s meeting with Hariri saying the atmosphere was “positive.”

“As an expert and an independent, my inclination is to form a government that is truly made up of experts and independents” Diab said.

Shortly after he spoke, scuffles broke out between Hariri’s supporters protesting on a Beirut street and Lebanese army units, underlying the tension on the ground. The protesters briefly blocked a main highway in central Beirut, expressing their rejection of Diab.

The protesters brought a truck full of sand and rocks to build a roadblock, at which point the army interfered to remove the protesters and the truck. A short scuffle ensued, with soldiers pushing and shoving angry protesters. At one point, soldiers kicked one man and another was injured, apparently by police hitting him on the head with a baton.

“I ask them (protesters) to give us a chance to form an exceptional government” that can work on resolving the country’s many problems, accumulated over the past 30 years, Diab said.

Diab faces huge challenges in trying to form a consensual government that would also satisfy protesters who have been on the streets since mid-October, seeking to sweep away an entire political class they deem as corrupt. He also faces a mammoth task of dealing with the country’s economic and financial crisis in one of the most indebted countries of the world.

Support from the Iran-backed Hezbollah guarantees Diab a thorny path, potentially inviting criticism from Western and Gulf nations that had supported Hariri. The Shiite group is designated a terrorist organization by the US, some Gulf Arab countries and a few Latin American nations.

AP